Bizarre U.S. Questioning of Israeli General Never Took Place

By Frank Collins and Eugene Bird

In a scandal that was largely hushed up by the U.S. media, Israeli General (now Private) Rami Dotan was sentenced in Israel last year to 13 years in prison for receiving bribes from General Electric for the placement of contracts for military aircraft engines, to be paid for from U.S. military aid to Israel. For its part in the collusion, General Electric paid fines of $69 million to the U.S. government.

After much pushing from Congressman John Dingell (D-MI), chairman of the subcommittee on oversight and investigations of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Departments of Defense and Justice took steps to question Dotan in prison about his dealings with GE and other companies with which he placed orders. The protocol under which Israel receives its annual $1.8 billion in U.S. military aid provides for free access of U.S. government investigators to Israelis suspected of fraudulent practices.

The Israeli government resisted any U.S. questioning of Dotan but finally agreed, initially, to a bizarre procedure. American investigators in a separate room would be allowed to put questions through a public address system to Dotan, who would be seated behind soundproof glass. Dotan's answers, however, would not be heard by the American investigators. Instead they would be provided by Israeli translators, who would decide how much of his testimony would actually be heard by the Americans.

After the U.S. accepted the Israeli terms, congressional aides told the Washington Report in late November that an American team of investigators was in Israel to question Dotan. The writers now have learned that the questioning never took place.

U.S. government officials declined to tell the Washington Report why the American team failed to question Dotan and when, or whether, he would be questioned. The Justice Department responded to both questions with "no comment." In a second interview with Justice, the spokesman said that he "can say nothing about the case." He would not even confirm that there was an agreement with Israel on interviewing Dotan, even though the existence of this agreement was reported last November in the U. S. press and discussed at length in the Dec. 1992/Jan. 1993 issue of the Washington Report.

The State Department responded that the hearing had been postponed because of scheduling difficulties. When pressed about the nature of these problems, a State Department spokesperson said, "I cannot tell you more." A second query to the State Department elicited the response that all inquiries should be referred to the Department of Justice. "It is their problem, their show," said the State Department official.

The Defense Department argued that it had nothing to do with the questioning of Dotan and that "no one in the Public Affairs Office knows anything about the case." The office of Jerome Silber, who had testified before the Dingell subcommittee on behalf of the Defense Department, said, "Mr. Silber is not allowed to talk to reporters."

"No News" Is News

In this particular case, "no news" is news. It suggests cover-up of fraud in the handling of military sales and procurement. If such a cover-up indeed exists, "Dotangate" could involve high officials in the U.S. as well as the Israeli government.

Besides the apparent indefinite postponement of the questioning, there are many other puzzling aspects of the Dotan affair. Herbert Steindler, a resident of Israel and the General Electric executive primarily responsible for the bribing of Dotan, has been discharged by General Electric but has never been prosecuted by either Israel or the U.S. for his actions.

An American-Israeli dual national, Harold Katz, laundered the money diverted from the GE military contracts, transferring large sums to Swiss banks and physically moving them from one bank to another with the help of his daughter. But, so far, no attempt has been made to call Katz, a former Boston businessman and now a resident of Israel, for questioning. Katz also was involved in the operations of the spy Jonathan Pollard. The Israeli Embassy used an apartment purchased by Katz in Washington, DC to copy the thousands of top-secret documents stolen by Pollard, a U.S. Navy counter-intelligence operative, while Pollard waited in a second apartment in the same building with his Israeli handler.

Other mysteries are why no information has been released as to any actions taken with respect to other U.S. companies: Pratt and Whitney, General Motors and Electrodyne, who also did business with Dotan, using U.S. military aid to Israel.

Strangest of all is the U.S. agreement to question Dotan only through soundproof glass, enabling Israeli government officials to screen and select which information to give to American investigators.

With the postponement of even this highly restricted questioning of Dotan, the Dotan affair may have reached a dead end, unless Congressman Dingell continues his investigation of it in the new Congress.